The purpose of Cost-effective Management Tools for Ensuring Food Quality and Safety is to improve and build the capacities of small and medium agro-industrial enterprises in order to guarantee the quality and safety of food products. The approach integrates the different factors that affect the capacity of a business to produce foods to meet market expectations and recognized standards, while maintaining and increasing the profitability and life of the business. Management and technical aspects are integrated through a practical and cost-effective approach. The consists of four modules on the following subjects: the use of market information for improving quality management; systems and tools for improving quality and safety management in agro-industry; the application of quality management principles in small and medium agro-industrial enterprises; planning as a tool for improving quality and safety management. The manual contains case studies, exercises and bibliographic references, as well as a trainers guide, PowerPoint presentations (on CD-ROM), appendices with further reading, links of interest and a glossary. The manual aims to assist trainers and entrepreneurs wishing to use the material for self-learning. With this manual, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provides the small and medium agro-industry sector in developing countries with an important tool for improving competitiveness and the capacity to deliver high-quality products to consumers. The package consists of a boxed set of five paperbacks."

Training courses based on this manual are designed to build the capacity of small and medium enterprises in the agro-industrial sector in order to improve quality and safety management and to achieve greater competitiveness and sustainability over the long term. Based on case studies carried out in Bolivia and El Salvador.

How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.

This text helps readers to build a solid understanding of the key concepts in the management and operation of supply chains involving chilling, refrigeration or freezing. Emphasis is placed on environmental—particularly temperature—control as important in avoiding irreversible damage to product quality and safety and the resulting loss of profit and consumer confidence. The authors explain the important issues arising within the supply chain of perishable goods from production to consumption: topics that include planning and design, instrumentation and methods of implementation, and process monitoring and control. Reminding the student that cold supply chains are essential for the supply of products more various than foods, product-specific studies and examples are included for handling bananas and vaccines. The importance of product traceability and automation are highlighted. Cold Chain Management is a self-contained guide for graduate and final-year undergraduate students specializing in the study of supply chains, and their instructors. Researchers interested in logistics will find this book instructive when they wish to consider the particular problems associated with cold chains and anyone looking to begin a business in which refrigeration or freezing will be necessary will be well-served by reading this text.

"The purpose of this manual is to improve and build the capacities of small and medium agro-industrial enterprises in order to guarantee the quality and safety of food products. The approach integrates the different factors that affect the capacity of a business to produce foods to meet market expectations and recognized standards, while maintaining and increasing the profitability and life of the business. Management and technical aspects are integrated through a practical and cost-effective approach. The manual includes four modules on the following subjects: the use of market information for improving quality management; systems and tools for improving quality and safety management in agro-industry; the application of quality management principles in small and medium agro-industrial enterprises; planning as a tool for improving quality and safety management. The manual contains case studies, exercises and bibliographic references, as well as a trainers' guide ... appendices with further reading, links of interest and a glossary. The manual aims to assist trainers and entrepreneurs wishing to use the material for self-learning. With this manual, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provides the small and medium agro-industry sector in developing countries with an important tool for improving competitiveness and the capacity to deliver high-quality products to consumers."--Publisher description.

Food safety awareness is at an all time high, new and emerging threats to the food supply are being recognized, and consumers are eating more and more meals prepared outside of the home. Accordingly, retail and foodservice establishments, as well as food producers at all levels of the food production chain, have a growing responsibility to ensure that proper food safety and sanitation practices are followed, thereby, safeguarding the health of their guests and customers. Achieving food safety success in this changing environment requires going beyond traditional training, testing, and inspectional approaches to managing risks. It requires a better understanding of organizational culture and the human dimensions of food safety. To improve the food safety performance of a retail or foodservice establishment, an organization with thousands of employees, or a local community, you must change the way people do things. You must change their behavior. In fact, simply put, food safety equals behavior. When viewed from these lenses, one of the most common contributing causes of food borne disease is unsafe behavior (such as improper hand washing, cross-contamination, or undercooking food). Thus, to improve food safety, we need to better integrate food science with behavioral science and use a systems-based approach to managing food safety risk. The importance of organizational culture, human behavior, and systems thinking is well documented in the occupational safety and health fields. However, significant contributions to the scientific literature on these topics are noticeably absent in the field of food safety.

Also available as E-book see food-quality-management For more information about the e-book, please contact Sales. Consumer understanding of food quality is crucial as their concerns for healthy, safe and sustainable food production remain high. This forces actors and stakeholders in the agribusiness and food industry to use quality management as a strategic approach in production and innovation. This book describes Food Quality Management (FQM) in one integrated concept. Firstly, all relevant aspects of food quality management are combined into one FQM-function model, which shaped the structure of the book chapters. Secondly, the authors have embedded the techno-managerial approach in the book. This approach starts with the notion that food quality is the outcome of the combined effect of food behaviour and human behaviour. The core principle of this approach is the concurrent use of technological and managerial theories and models to analyse food systems behaviour and people's quality behaviour and generate adequate improvements to the system. Topics covered in the book include food quality properties and concepts, essentials of quality management and food technology, and details about food and human behaviour. Furthermore, this book describes in detail the technological and managerial principles and practices in the five FQM functions, quality design, quality control, quality improvement, quality assurance, and quality policy and strategy. Moreover, for each function a special topic relevant for the function is highlighted, namely consumer-oriented design, product versus resource control, quality gurus and improvement, quality assurance standards and guidelines (like GMP, HACCP, ISO2200, IFS and BRC), and Total Quality Management. This publication is a must-have for students, researchers and agribusiness and food industry professionals active in various areas of food production in the supply chain. The integrated approach with technological and managerial principles and concepts for analysing food quality management issues makes this a valuable reference book.